Big day at Shen

Visitors to Shen High School have a new soccer stadium to enjoy. An achievement board featuring the years and years of accomplishments of both the boys and girls programs and a working scoreboard (yeah!) are the cornerstones. New bleachers are safely tucked off the sidelines, most visitors sit to the right facing the field, the home team sits to the left. Then there are the nomad parents who either follow the defense or offense to the extreme ends. Formal introductions of the players and handshakes are part of the pre-game ceremony. The fans sit on the opposite side of the players and their coaches. (Restricting fans to the opposite sides of the field as the players and coaches is commonplace in soccer starting in the player development recreational leagues.)

It is a wonderful place to watch a soccer match. All the games this year have been controlled by the refs and the parents have mainly stuck to cheering instead of trying to tell their players what to do. I expect nothing different in today’s Shen/Bethlehem matchup. It is a matchup of two very different teams on paper, but two teams whose players, fans and coaches respect each other. And they respect the game.

Read Mark McGuire’s column today called “Laying some ground rules for sports.” He put together a few rules for conduct at high school games that everyone should be able to agree upon. Mark’s rules are pretty basic stuff. Right?

After reading Mark’s column in the newspaper, I came to the computer to update my blog. The 48th comment on my post “Big win for Burnt Hills” made me realize many parents and fans often still don’t follow the basic rules.

From Soccerdad: What I am both embarrassed and disgusted at each and every game is the behavior of the parents. It’s insane. I was at a game last week and I was standing on the end of the field where the opposing team’s parents were standing. I usually stand on the end of the field where my daughters, both fullbacks, play. I don’t cheer very loudly at the games. I usually cheer when my kids (do) something good. At this particular game, once it was discovered I was the parent of players on the opposing team, I was ridiculed by parents and actually spit on by students that were in the bleachers. The parents were swearing at the refs at me, at each other. It was nuts.
I tend to notice the more angry and vocal the parents get the more physical the players on the field get. It happens almost every game. By the time they’re at the varsity level kids start to get hurt because the games become more and more physical. The anger level of the parents multiplies as the game progresses. Every time a player trips over her own feet or is legally defended off the ball a parent that knows nothing about the rules of the game is screaming for blood from the sidelines. Just my opinion. Thanks

Parents, fans, coaches and refs … the focus isn’t on you. It’s about watching the kids on the field and supporting their efforts. Keep that in mind.